|
|
 |
|
| |
|
Revenge of the Geeks
By Andy Steiner
When Robert Stephens was a kid, he made his own rules.
“I’m the last of seven children,” Stephens explains with
a laugh, “so for my parents, it’s like I was version 7.0. It
was a hands-off childhood. I never got in trouble because my folks had
already seen it all. It was like growing up in Amsterdam.”
|
Robert Stephens |
Such a freewheeling childhood might have been a disaster
for some kids, but it turned out to be the ideal environment for Stephens,
the energetic, creative mastermind behind Geek Squad, the Minneapolis-based
computer repair company whose technicians—or “special agents”—wear
clip-on ties, white shirts, and ID badges and cruise around town in a fleet
of custom-painted Volkswagen Beetles.
In November, the 50-employee Geek Squad hit the big time
when it merged with Best Buy, the Richfield-based national electronics
retailer. The merger, which positions Geek Squad to become the largest
computer repair company in the nation, comes just nine years after Stephens
left General College and a prize job as chief engineer of the University’s
Human Factors Research Laboratory to go into business for himself. The
company he founded—with just a $200 initial investment—was
Geek Squad. The rest is the stuff of business legend.
Creativity, unleashed
Stephens grew up in Wheeling, Illinois, a comfort-able enclave in Chicago’s
northwestern suburbs. Because he thought that most creative people became painters
or sculptors when they grew up, Stephens attended the Art Institute of Chicago
for a year after graduating from high school. It took only a few months of classes,
however, for Stephens to realize that the life of a starving artist just wasn’t
his bag. This was the early 1990s, and home computing was beginning to take off
on a large scale, so Stephens, a self-described “computer-nerd-slash-rebel,” decided
to take advantage of what looked like a great opportunity. He quit the Art Institute,
packed his bags, and headed up to Minnesota, where he enrolled in the University’s
General College. His goal was to earn a degree in computer science.
Stephens quickly made himself at home at the University, earning recognition
for his academic achievements—an accomplishment he’d never realized
in high school. “For once, I was actually interested in my classes,” Stephens
says. “I made the dean’s list my first year.” He also got to
know his professors, especially General College humanities professor Robert Yahnke,
who Stephens says inspired him to do some of the best work of his college career.
“Studying with Yahnke was a highlight,” Stephens says. “He
taught Film 101, but this guy could have taught anything—and it would’ve
been a great experience.”
Stephens says he’s convinced that General College was the right choice
for a person like him, a guy who’s never looked at life straight on. He
appreciated the college’s commitment to helping nontraditional students
through the University system, and when he won the job at the Human Factors Research
Laboratory, the school’s work-friendly schedule allowed him to work without
sacrificing credits.
“General College gave me a chance to get back into the college ‘system,’” Stephens
reflects. “And because I think I am the type of person who does not always
fit well into a system, it was the perfect match for me.”
For those who know Stephens, it came as no surprise when he abruptly decided
to leave the University and go into business for himself. He’s never been
good at staying in one place for long, he admits, and the desire to strike out
on his own was just too intense to ignore.
“Growing up, I was always encouraged to be creative,” Stephens says. “Whatever
I said I wanted to do, my family was behind me 100 percent. When I left the University,
somehow I knew that this next step would be a significant one for me. And it
was. Geek Squad is about using my creative energy in a way that keeps me engaged
for the long run.” |
 |
Up, up, up
From the start, Stephens has always had grand plans for Geek Squad. He’s
never been shy to say that his ambition for the company is nothing short of “total
global domination.”
“Right now, we are the best computer support company on the planet,” he
continues, without a trace of irony. And with Best Buy watching his back, Stephens
believes that Geek Squad “can only go up from here.” |
These days, merger management is taking up much of his time,
but Stevens says he also has plans to further develop a side project that’s
particularly dear to his heart. It’s a new computer training program
he named Project Geek Squad, where Stephens and other special agents show
economically challenged kids how to assemble working computers out of donated “junk” machines.
“When they first come into the office, these are tough-talking kids,” Stephens
recalls. “But once they start learning how computers are put together and
how they can make a good computer out of a pile of junk, we have their attention.
In a strange way, these kids remind me of myself when I was younger. All they
need is someone to tell them, ‘Go ahead. Tear that computer apart and make
me a better one.’ You can see that they understand that the possibilities
are endless.” |
|
|
